Slave Prices from Succession and Bankruptcy Sales in Mauritius, 1825--1827

Shirley Chenny, Pascal St-Amour and Désiré Vencatachellum ()

CIRANO Working Papers from CIRANO

Abstract: We construct a unique data set from succession and bankruptcy sales in Mauritius to investigate the determinants of slave prices between 1825 and 1827. We find that males, females sold with children, skilled slaves and slaves sold during the peak sugar cane harvest season all fetched higher prices. In comparison, handicapped and non-native slaves were sold at a discount. Moreover, the young-children premium increased over the period. This may indicate that slave owners did not think that slavery would be abolished in the near future or thought that they would be compensated in such an event. Nous construisons une base de données unique à partir des ventes de succession et de faillites sur l'Île Maurice afin d'étudier les prix des esclaves entre 1825 et 1827. Nous trouvons que les hommes, les femmes vendues avec enfants, les esclaves qualifiés et ceux vendus en période de récolte obtiennent les prix les plus élevés. En comparaison, les esclaves avec handicap, ainsi que ceux qui ne sont pas originaires de l'Île Maurice sont vendus moins cher. De plus, la prime pour des jeunes enfants augmente durant la période étudiée. Ceci pourrait indiquer que les propriétaires n'anticipaient pas une abolition prochaine de l'esclavage ou encore pensaient recevoir une compensation financière si l'esclavage était aboli.

Keywords: Slavery; slave price; Mauritius; Esclavage; prix des esclaves; Île-Maurice (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N37 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002-09-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Slave prices from succession and bankruptcy sales in Mauritius, 1825-1827 (2003)
Working Paper: Slaves Prices from Succession and Bankruptcy Sales in Mauritius, 1825-1827 (2003)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cir:cirwor:2002s-79

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